samgyupsal wrote:
I'm not quite sure what the comparison is within A. "...cars more gasoline-efficient...than presently on the road." So cars are compared with a "moment in time" (i.e., the present)? Is this logic the same for the rest of the answer choices?
(A) into research to develop cars more gasoline-efficient even than presently on the road
(A) seems to express that the cars are more gasoline efficient than presently on the road, as if the cars have two possible qualities, gasoline efficient and presently on the road, and the quality gasoline efficient is more pronounced than the quality presently on the road.
(A) could also be read as expressing that cars are more gasoline efficient than a modifier, the modifier "presently on the road," in which case cars are illogically compared with a modifier.
This comparison is essentially repeated by (C) and (E) with the order of the wording changed a bit.
(B) into research for developing even more gasoline-efficient cars on the road than at present
(B) almost works. It almost effectively expresses a comparison along the lines of more cars on the road than there are at present. However, because it does not use "there are," it does not effectively express that comparison and, instead, compares a quantity of cars with a time, at present.
Can we interpret option A with ellipses ? -> cars more gasoline efficient even than (cars) presently on the road?